Sweet Dreams of You: Patsy Cline - March 5, 1963

(This post was intended to run on March 5th but was postponed in respect of the fallen Midland Police Officer Nathan Heidelberg, who gave his life in the service of his community during the early hours of March 5th. )

On this day in 1963, one of the greatest country singers of all time, Patsy Cline, was killed in an airplane crash near Camden, Tennessee.  Patsy (born Virginia Patterson Hensley) had an enrapturing voice that captures one's soul even these several decades after her death.  I was a toddler when she died, but by the time I was old enough to listen to country music on my grandfather's radio in the dairy barn, I was already a Patsy Cline fan.  As one radio DJ said, "Patsy Cline can sing any song and IMMEDIATELY make it her own."  I have to agree wholeheartedly with that assessment.  For instance, Don Gibson, a country superstar of the 60's, wrote and recorded "Sweet Dreams of You."  Gibson's version was not a Top 10 hit, but Patsy Cline's version, released in 1963 only months after her death, completely overshadowed Gibson's version by reaching Number 5 on the country charts and breaking the Top 20 on the Pop charts.  Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" went on to become one of the signature songs of country music.  Today many younger people do not even know that Don Gibson released this song, much less wrote it, but love to hear Patsy Cline's melancholy, yet sultry rendition. 

Patsy Cline put her special vocal "touch" on many country "standards" including some of my favorites, such as "I Fall to Pieces," "Crazy," I Go Walking After Midnight," "She's Got You," and "Faded Love," just to name a few.  "Back" in the days of CDs (compact discs, in case you are under thirty) I wore out two or three Patsy Cline disks.  And celebrities loved Patsy Cline's voice as much as the fans did.  Madonna idolized Patsy Cline's beautiful voice and considered Patsy Cline to be very influential on her own music.  Madonna felt that Patsy Cline had one of the greatest voices of all time and conceded in one interview that her own voice paled in comparison.

Although Patsy Cline left us so many years ago, her memory lives on in her songs.  Even these decades after her death, Patsy Cline's haunting voice in her ballads, in her upbeat tunes, and her bluesy, melancholy songs of broken love, will continue to pull at the hearts of her old fans, while at the same time attracting new admirers, for many years to come.  Thank you, Patsy, for your beautiful songs.  I will always love your voice and your songs, and will continue to have "Sweet Dreams of You."

Patsy Cline
September 8, 1932 - March 5, 1963

End of Watch: March 5, 2019 Officer Nathan Heidelberg, Midland Police Department, Midland TX

This, my first post in weeks, which I planned several days ago to cover a different subject, has been roughly and brutally shoved aside, and my heart is very sad with the post I am forced to write this evening.  I did not know Officer Heidelberg, other than to wave at him as he passed in and out of the hospital where I work.  But he was a respected officer of the Midland Police Department, and had the honor and responsibility of serving as a Field Training Officer, an assignment not lightly passed out by police management.

When a police officer loses his life in the line of duty, it is always tragic.  Many times officers are murdered by criminals, many times officers are struck by vehicles, and many others are killed in various ways each year...but I have to say, Officer Heidelberg's death has to be one of the most senseless waste of an officer's life I have ever heard of, and this makes this tragedy so much the harder to bear for his family and his fellow officers.  And this is one of the most senseless actions of an armed citizen that I have ever heard of in my life, again, making this officer's death all the more difficult to understand.

Officer Heidelberg, the "rookie" officer he was training, and two other experienced officers, responded to a residential burglar alarm.  This alarm was the type this is monitored by an alarm company, which then summons police to the location in question.  One other thing the alarm company does (or is supposed to do) is find out if the owner is home, and if so, inform the owner that police are on the way.  I have no idea if the particular alarm company followed this procedure.  The Texas Rangers are investigating all of these things.

Whatever the case, the four officers approached the residence, at which time the owner stepped out the front door.  The police officers (as verified by multiple body cameras) loudly announced repeatedly that they were police officers and that they were there to check the home and property.  Not only that, but there were at least three patrol cars parked outside the house when the owner stepped outside.  Inexplicably, the owner opened fire, striking Officer Heidelberg in the chest just above his ballistic vest.  In what must be one of the greatest acts of restraint of force ever by police, the other officers gave the shooter a chance to lay down his weapon.  Certainly they would have been justified in returning fire upon seeing Officer Heidelberg struck down.  But, in fact, the homeowner was not injured.

This man later (after hiring an attorney) said that he thought the officers were "invading" his home.  Never mind that this man ran OUTSIDE his home and began wildly firing at persons who identified themselves as police officers, were in uniform, and had left marked police cars parked on the street.  To invade a home, the actors would need to at least be AT THE DOOR OR WINDOW OF THE HOME AND ATTEMPTING TO MAKE ENTRY.  He would not have been justified firing at real burglars, much less the police, in these circumstances.  The man was rightly arrested and charged with killing the officer, although not capital murder.

May the Good Shepherd enfold Officer Heidelberg's family, friends, and fellow officers tonight, and comfort these people as only the Good Shepherd can. May the Good Shepherd protect the officers that are left to carry on without Nathan Heidelberg with them tonight.  I am honored, yet saddened, to lift up Officer Heidelberg here, to thank him for his service and his ultimate sacrifice.

I also hope the shooter, in light of this most senseless action that he has taken, will voluntarily give up the ownership of his guns.  He is clearly not responsible enough, nor capable of clear judgment, to ever be trusted with deadly weapons again.  He could have easily shot his own family member or a neighbor who might have been coming to the residence to check on his safety.  His actions are inexplicable.  Was he so afraid that he decided to shoot anything that moved near his house?  Worse, was he so arrogant and careless that he would shoot anyone found outside his residence, no questions asked, just because his burglar alarm had been triggered?  We all know that many things, including inclement, extremely cold weather, can activate burglar alarms.  Yes, a person has the right to protect himself and his family, but with that right comes the responsibility to clearly identify any potential target as either a criminal or someone else.  The death of Officer Nathan Heidelberg was so senseless and needless, and so very avoidable, had the homeowner acted reasonably.

And the Thin Blue Line in heaven boasts one more officer tonight.

David Crockett Went To Texas

Today in US History, and perhaps I should add, Texas history, is the day in 1835 that David Crockett gave his famous "...you may all go to Hell, and I am going to Texas" farewell speech.  By the way, before I go further I would like to add, for Mr. Crockett, that he hated being called "Davy."  I have read this in more than one biography, so in respect to Mr. Crockett I will not call him "Davy" in this post.

My research into David Crockett's life and character has shown me that Crockett truly embodied all the stereotypical characteristics, even those of Hollywood, that you and I today have come to expect of all "frontiersmen."  He really did occasionally wear a coonskin cap, although he seemed to prefer to wear more traditional crowned hats at least as often, if not more.  He actually did hunt for food when he was very young.  Actually, most frontier children, especially boys, learned to hunt at  a young age, because their fathers were away from the house either fighting, farming, or running businesses.  Crockett actually wore clothes with fringes on the sleeves and legs, but the fringes were not decorations.  Actually, they represented high technology for that day.  The Indians with whom these frontiersmen had contact wore fringes for an actual purpose - the fringes acted as collection points for water, allowing the water, from rain or from crossing creeks and rivers, to drain off their clothing more quickly.  And Crockett was not "educated."  His education came from his life experiences and from his own self-education.

Although David Crockett was indeed a frontiersman, he was making inroads into politics by his early twenties.  He was an early county commissioner in North Carolina, and held various local public offices for the next few years.  He was constantly working as well, which left little time for formal education.  Crockett did not let his lack of education hold him back.  Instead, he rather shrewdly capitalized on his "country backwardness" by using his life-experiences and colorful anecdotes to represent his constituents and lull his opponents.

One of the most important aspects of being a frontiersman, one which I did not list above, was "being your own man."  Frontiersmen were fiercely independent, both in their actions and in their thinking.  David Crockett was no exception.  He believed in educating himself, both in general knowledge, and about local and national political issues.  Once educated, Crockett believed, a person should decide how he or she stood on an issue, then STAND.  Stand, no matter what other people said.  David Crockett said, "Be sure you are right, then go ahead." 

It was Crockett's fierce independence and his desire to be his own man that eventually led to his ouster from Congress.  In 1835 Crockett stood against President Andrew Jackson on his treatment of the Indians.  That was political suicide, and all of Crockett's colleagues told him so.  As one of his biographers put it, "Crockett was elected as a 'Jacksonian' but quickly became an 'Anti - Jacksonian' and lost the election of 1835."  No one in his right political mind would defy Jackson, but Crockett further nailed shut his coffin by stating on the House floor that "President Jackson is a worse tyrant than...Napoleon."  And so it was that in January, 1836 David Crockett uttered probably his most famous quote, "...all of you may go to Hell, and I am going to Texas."

Shortly afterward David Crockett set out for Texas.  On the way he and his three companions joined with a company of men from Louisiana who were headed to a crumbling, difficult to defend fort/mission called "The Alamo."  It may be that Crockett knew he was riding into Destiny.  He gave away his Mason apron, something a practicing Mason would never do.  Something about the Texas Revolution appealed to him, yet something else told him that he was heading into his last fight.

David Crockett is one of my favorite men of US History, and one of my favorite quotes of his is "You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas."  The defenders of the Alamo were doomed, and Crockett and the men with him did not change the final outcome.  But the few survivors of that famous battle all agreed that David Crockett lifted the spirit of those doomed men, both with his singing and with his encouraging words.  As Death closed on those men during the final minutes before the last assault, David Crockett's motto, "Be sure you're right, then go ahead" must have gone through their minds.  They, along with Crockett, went ahead into the final hopeless fight, and into perhaps the most famous battle of modern times.  Who knows, perhaps Crockett's presence, his wit, his personality helped the men fulfill all that would be required of them in their finest hour.

You may all go to Hell, I am going to Texas


God Bless America

Sweetie, It Sure Is Quiet Now

The house is finally quiet again.  Yes, my wife is speaking to me, and yes, the television is on, but the house is STILL quiet.  Child A has spent his obligatory twenty minutes with us, and is now back in his room, but that is not the "source" of the quiet.  The source of the quiet, of course, is the fact that  both grandchildren are now back with their parents.  And the house, though full of conversation and television noise, is oh so quiet.  That is one of the parts of "grandparentism"that has amazed me since my lovely bride and I were gifted with our first grandchild, and continues to strike me even after our second grandchild came into our world.  How quiet the house is after "the children" go home.  I know the grandchildren will visit again, relatively soon, but how quiet it is after they go home!

My precious Baby Baby is now three years old and will be four in just a few months.  She seems so grown up!  She talks so well, problems solves well, helps with little chores, and most of all LOVES for Poppee (me!) to play with her.  Yes, I am her playmate.  And I love it just as much as she.  I have gone through countless Peppa Pig adventures with her.  Today's Peppa adventure included me starring as "Monster Poppee" who endlessly trapped "Princess Peppa," only to foiled in his evil plans by "Prince George" who in "real life" is Peppa's younger brother.  Next we spend hours playing "True and Bartleby"  I don't know the actual name of the cartoon, I think it may be "The Adventures of True" but that is just a guess on my part.  True is a young lady who goes on many adventures, and shares those adventures her friend and CAT, Bartleby.  When we are "in character" as True and Bartleby, True addresses Bartleby, who then answers, "Yes, True."  If Poppe does not get that answer right, play is stopped immediately until "Bartleby" answers correctly..."Yes, True."  We go to the Wishing Tree to get three wishes that help solve the particular problem in a certain adventure.  Then we hurry to the "scene" of whatever the problem might be by riding on "Cumulo," a friendly cumulus cloud who is always ready at True's beck and call.  If one were to visit our home while Baby Baby was there, that person would be treated to the delightful scene of "True" leading around her friend (and cat) Bartleby by the hand, telling Bartleby some important bit of information, then hearing True say, " No Bartleby!  You have to say 'yes, True.'"

While all this is going on, Baby Derek, our latest addition, is playing in the floor or bouncing and making noise in his "jumper."  Baby Derek is one of the two sweetest babies I have ever seen.  The other was his uncle, Child A.  Baby Derek is all smalls, and so loving.  And he is already a "Honey's baby."  That means that he much prefers Honey to Poppee, just as Baby Baby does.  For cuddling or comforting purposes, both children prefer Honey to Poppee.  The good news is that when Honey is not available, and the choice is between Poppee and being totally ignored, they happily choose Poppee.  But Baby Derek a strange little quirk.  He has a very bad temper!  If his bottle is a few seconds late, he turns red, bulges out the vessels on his cute little head, and suddenly looks like a pint-size, red-tinted miniature Hulk!  A wet diaper turns our sweet little man into Hulk 2, as does placing him on his blanket on the floor for "tummy time" if he thinks he is not ready.  But he is such a joy!  He and his sister have greatly decorated our lives, my Lovely Bride and I.

And that is what makes the house so quiet when they leave, our little Baby Baby and Baby Derek.  They decorate our lives, as I am sure that all grandchildren do for all grandparents.  Our children are not "dethroned" by the arrival of grandchildren, but instead our lives, blessed by children, are doubly blessed when grandchildren appear in our lives.  The laughter, the occasional tears, and yes, even the hours spent as True's friend, Bartleby, all decorate our lives, literally brightening our happy home.  So when it is finally time for the children to go home, even though I know they will be back soon, it seems so quiet.  My lovely bride comments in a somewhat saddened voice, "Sweetie, it sure is quiet now."  She is right. Even with the TV on and conversation going on, the house seems so very quiet.  And so it is, but only for a short while.  The babies will be here again soon, and once again, the quiet will be chased out of the house for at time.

In just the wink of an eye, 2018 is in the past, and the New Year is upon us!  I am excited about the new year and what it holds in store.  At the same time, I am so amazed that what was supposed to be "just a few days off" for me turned into several months off.  We welcomed our second grandchild into the world during 2018, and that took some time away from writing and other things, but it was a pleasure to spend so much time with my precious grandchildren.  If time cannot be recovered, then this was certainly one of the best ways I could have used this time.  Some of the time I did lose without the hope of recovery and with the knowledge that I would have rather done almost ANYTHING else was the time I spent "filling in" for employees who seemed to be unceasingly ill, who needed off at the spur of the moment, and for one who took off whenever the time off was desired, until that employee was fired.  In 2019 I will not make THAT mistake again.

Christmas 2018 proved to be one of the "merriest" Christmases ever for my immediate family.  None of us stressed this year as far as trying to find the "right" gifts or spending a lot of money just to spend money.  Even without all that, this Christmas was a blast!  Our little grandkids (and their parents) along with our son were all gathered with us this year, and I have to say that was the biggest and best gift of all, far outshining all of the things that were gifted.  My lovely bride and Child B (my daughter) tickled our tummies with some great cooking and some great cookies as well.  We all had such a great time.

Now, on this first day of 2019, I begin the new year with several goals to meet, but only one "resolution" and that is to LIVE each moment in the present.  Yes, goals hark toward the future, but if one has no goals, and no plans on how to reach those goals, than that person is not moving forward, not growing.  The alternative is no longer acceptable for me.  I have some goals, and I have the plans to meet those goals, but whether I do or not, I am going to enjoy my life and my loved ones.  For all of my readers, I have you in my thoughts and prayers as the new year breaks upon us.

I am not going to discuss most of my goals on this blog, but one of my goals I want to talk about, and will accomplish, is to finish a book by the end of this year.  I have, for the past two years or so, been in touch with a very accomplished and successful writing team, each of them successful in their own right as well.  I have gained a lot of knowledge from these two special people, and I intend to soak in even more from them this year.  I will not reveal their names, but they have numerous books to their credit, and have even featured some of my experiences in a couple of their books and magazine articles.  Some of their credits include several installments of the Indiana Jones series, and it has been an honor and a privilege that they have shared their time and their experience with me.

It is great to have the blog rolling again, and I hope to have some interesting posts, some educational posts, and some emotional posts, that will be engaging and thought-provoking.  I will also post some articles that will just be entertaining.  One difference in the blog for the coming year, and for the remaining time that I blog, is that I will make very few, if any, political posts this year.  There are plenty of political blogs and political websites out there, as well as on television, so I will not add my little political knowledge and feeble opinions to that particular hue and cry. There are so many other things to blog about, as far as my interests, and hopefully yours too,  are concerned. Thanks again for sticking with me, and Happy New Year!!!

End Of Watch: Officer Garrett Hull, Fort Worth Police - September 14, 2018

The latest Texas Peace Officer to give his life in the line of duty is Officer Garrett Hull, Forth Worth PD.

Officer Garrett and his colleagues, members of the Criminal Intelligence Unit, had developed information leading to the identification of three subjects who, as a team, had robbed several bars and other businesses over the past few weeks.

On September 13, 2018 the CI Unit were engaged in surveillance of the three men when they committed a robbery in a local bar.  The CI Unit approached the bar as the men fled, and a foot pursuit began.  During the pursuit one of the subjects fired at pursing officers, the bullet striking Officer Garrett in the head.  In the exchange of gunfire that followed, the robber was killed.

Officer Garrett was rushed to a nearby hospital, where medical staff worked through the night and into the following day to save the wounded officer, while many of his colleagues gathered in the hallways and the waiting room to stand vigil.  Unfortunately Officer Garrett died from his injuries the following afternoon.

Officer Garrett left behind his wife, two daughters, his family, and his colleagues at the Forth Worth Police Department.  The officer had served seventeen years as a police officer.  I am proud to honor Officer Garrett here, but saddened at the event that gives rise to this memorial.

I pray for the Good Shepherd's comforting arms for this officers loved ones and friends, and for the safety of all peace officers across the nation and the world.

Meerkats, or The Wonders Of "Autocorrect"

It has been said (by someone) that we learn something new every day.  Well, here is one thing I learned today.

It turns out that if you write a text while still in bed, very groggy from just waking up, and not wearing glasses because they just fell off the nightstand and to the floor, and you misspell the word "meetings" so that the the typo is "meerings" (the "r" IS right beside "t," in my defense) autocorrect saves the day by correcting "meerings" for you.

Here is an actual text message exchange between my lovely bride and me just after noon today:

Bride (all wide awake at work): Want to take me to lunch? Sleeping still?

Me (very groggy from just waking up, and not wearing glasses because they just fell off the night stand): I am awake. I need to just wet my head and dress. Do you have meerkats at 1:00? If not, I will get dressed and be right there.

(Long pause, audible even in the text world, then finally)

Bride: Meerkats?

(Second long pause, audible even in the text world, followed by the realization that I had misspelled "meetings" but, once again, autocorrect SAVED THE DAY...or at least the message)

Me (now sheepishly picking up my glasses):Oh, I think that must be an autocorrect, I was typing "meetings." That is pretty funny.

Bride: I was thinking you still had to be asleep.

Me: And no glasses!

Bride: Ha ha ha (she laughed, sure, but possibly called the local sheriff's mental health task force as well)

So I learned today that if one types "meerings" instead of "meetings" the autocorrect will default to "meerkats."                       

As I pondered this new factoid, I also put on my running shoes and tied them tightly, just in case the Midland County Mental Health deputies REALLY ARE on the way to my house! I am thinking this would be a great time to go to Wally World.